Search form

Community and Environment

Community and Environment

America’s communities are rooted in connections to the land, waters, and forests that comprise the American landscape. Building a sustainable future for our communities requires coping with a complex array of issues that are further complicated by globalization, resource depletion, changing demographics, new land use patterns, and, especially important, climate change. The Carsey School’s interdisciplinary team of policy-minded researchers seeks to address these issues through building knowledge and awareness of the socio-economic conditions, ecosystem changes, and policy opportunities in communities where natural resources play an important role in the local economy. Our work explores the potential of working landscape development strategies to build diverse, resilient communities and local economies. We examine the dynamic interplay of changing social, economic and environmental factors and the implications for ecologically sustainable economic development policies.

Related Links

Works in progress

Currently the Carsey School participates in two multi-institution NH EPSCoR projects including the Ecosystems and Society project and the New England Sustainability Consortium. NH EPSCoR project research includes analyses of public perceptions of environmental issues, environmental science and climate change; stakeholder engagement in and use of scientific research; and demographic and forest structure impacts on biomass and carbon sequestration. Other Carsey research is building upon the Community and Environment in Rural America project that engages a wide variety of scholars with interdisciplinary expertise to employ rigorous evaluation, social and biophysical scientific methodologies and work closely with policy makers and community development practitioners to assess and understand what is going on in rural areas and the impact and systemic effect of different development interventions.